I’m happy to announce that today, the first day of April, I have launched a major revision to my web site.  Version 20 marks my shift from the Joomla content management system to WordPress.  The most important new feature made possible by this switch is Auto-Fading Text, which encourages the reader to read my site quicker and more efficiently (and makes the text nearly illegible if they do not).  Read on to learn more details about Auto-Fading Text and the other new features. Read the rest of this entry »

For Website 20, it was time to retire the egg that had served so well from Website 17 to Website 19.  Intentionally badly-animated, the egg was inspired by pandas’ notorious inability to breed successfully—which leads to my theory that God hates pandas.

Enjoy.

• Website 17-19 Easter Egg.

It always amazes me how many U.S. businesses wantonly break the law—often doing so without compunction and, worse, without consequences.  It further amazes me how, even when a crime is obvious, our government agencies often fail to stop it.

Here in my current home town of Herndon, VA, as in many other places around the country, illegal immigrants gather in large numbers on a particular street to await work every morning.  Do the local police, state authorities, or federal immigration agencies ever stop by to arrest these illegal immigrants and the people who illegally hire them?  No.

I discovered from Brian Krebs’s blog at the Washington Post that this pattern extends to the Internet, at least with respect to terrorism.  Also here in Herndon, our neighborhood domain registrar Network Solutions has illegally accepted money from Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations that U.S companies are prohibited from doing business with.  Endurance International, the parent company of my own web hosting provider (that I am soon to abandon for other reasons), also hosts a web site for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Do these companies care?  Apparently not.  Will the various U.S. government agencies with responsibility for enforcing our anti-terror laws fine these businesses?  Unlikely.  I just don’t get it!

Another picture I took a while ago and forgot to post—likely because I was laid up with a horrendous stomach bug for a week right after I took it.  While I was flying out to Albuquerque in January, this vending machine caught my eye in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.  Yes, you are not imagining things.  This is an iPod vending machine, which includes several varieties of iPods, digital cameras, and accessories.  If you ever wanted an iPod, but didn’t want to visit an actual retailer, here is your solution.

So, the commute this morning didn’t go exactly as planned.  Five minutes earlier, we would have passed through before the accident that had I-66 Eastbound shut down at Washington Blvd.  Five minutes later, we would have been far enough back to take the exit for Route 7 and head through Falls Church to get to the office on surface streets.  Instead, we sat…for an hour…without moving.  If you look at the second picture, you’ll notice that the car was in PARK when these were taken.  When we finally got up to the accident, it did look pretty brutal…so hopefully everybody was okay.

So a lot has been going on, but very little of it has made it to the web site as I have hardly had time to write about anything. I’ve been working to downsize my technology portfolio, since I had a glut of computers sitting around, so I’ve replaced a number of my old, secondary computers with a single Asus Eee PC 4G Surf. It’s a pretty spiffy little machine that’s small enough for use pretty much everywhere. I’m writing this entry on it right now. I’ll write a more thorough review of the machine sooner or later.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on some ideas for a major update/change to my web site. The 20th version of the site will likely be running on a different content management system (I’m looking at WordPress) and a more ‘blog-oriented’ format. I think a focus on smaller, punchier articles will be easier for me to keep up with—plus WordPress has a more flexible categorization system than Joomla, which will allow a more accurate and usable structure to the site. This is still a-ways away, though I am planning to start some prototyping soon. I’ll provide updates as the redesign gets closer, but I’m looking at a more minimalist design with better support for mobile browsers and lower requirements for desktop browsers (allowing viewing on small screens, like that on my new Eee PC, without horizontal scrolling). Read the rest of this entry »

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the shootings at Northern Illinois University in the midst of unspeakable tragedy.  But, every time I hear of one of these incidents, I am reminded of how flawed the idea of ‘gun control’ is.  The campus of Northern Illinois University, like Virginia Tech’s and many other campuses across the country, is a ‘gun-free zone’.  This simply means that law abiding gun owners leave their weapons at home (weapons that might have been used to cut short these massacres with return-fire) while the criminals, who care little for laws, continue to carry and use their weapons.  We see the same pattern in Washington, DC, where guns are essentially illegal so only the gang members and criminals carry while the law-abiding citizens go unarmed (and are 688% more likely to be murdered than citizens of neighboring Virginia [US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004]).

I am not a gun owner [yet ;-)], but this is another example of why gun ownership and—more importantly—gun possession by responsible, law-abiding citizens is not a problem.  On the contrary, it is a potential solution and deterrent to gun violence.  As the old saying goes, ‘an armed society is a polite society.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Just outside of Charlottesville, VA heading north on Route 29 there is a notorious stretch of road.  There are two lanes of traffic, lots of volume coming out of Charlottesville, a series of badly-timed traffic lights, and rolling hills that limit forward visibility.  Often, as I pass through that area, a leisurely 30-45 mph drive turns to a sudden stop and a few heart-wrenching seconds where you wonder if the drivers of the cars behind you have been as alert as you have been.

Today, as Melissa and I passed through the area on this dangerous stretch of road, it was a fairly standard string of events.  We were driving at about 35 or 40 mph in a long mass of cars, minding our own business, when one of the badly timed lights turned red somewhere up ahead and everybody in front of us came to a sudden, unexpected stop.  I, of course, applied the brakes on my Mazda Tribute SUV [strongly] and came to a stop at an appropriate distance behind the car ahead of me.  Immediately, I looked in the rear-view to make sure people behind us were stopping as well. Read the rest of this entry »

A curious thing happened on the way to extending MetroRail to Dulles: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA, ‘Metro’) unmitigated incompetence at running the existing system got noticed, and the Federal Transit Administration started asking why they should help fund an addition to a disintegrating system.  Now, as a direct result of Metro’s spectacular inability to manage itself, a twenty-year overdue addition to our regional transportation system probably won’t happen.  This, combined with the state government’s continuing redirection of Northern Virginia transportation money to Southern Virginia Rest Stop Renovations, has lined us up for a future of ever-worsening gridlock.

[Federal Transit Administration chief James S.] Simpson emphasized his concerns about Metro, likening the Dulles expansion to putting a two-room addition onto a house that is falling down. “First, you have to fix the house,” he said later at a news conference. “Metro’s operational issues have become really serious over the last several months,” he said. “I spent several hours with senior staff at Metro talking about their unfunded needs. They’re holding up some of their subway stations with jacks. They’re holding other subway stations up with two-by-fours and plywood. I could go on.”

Read the rest of this entry »

There are more big changes on this year’s list of the ugliest cars.  Two models featured on last year’s list (Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, Scion xA) have been discontinued, two have undergone major appearance changes or redesigns (Scion xB, Subaru Tribeca), and another (Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible) is available for 2008 but has already had its demise announced by Chrysler’s new management.  The Subaru Tribeca (formerly the ‘B9 Tribeca’) underwent a radical improvement (after only one year on the market), eliminating many of its worst visual characteristics and resulting in a stellar climb—from last year’s ugliest car to not even appearing on this year’s list. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m happy to announce that today, the first day of April, I have launched a major revision to my web site.  Version 20 marks my shift from the Joomla content management system to WordPress.  The most important new feature made possible by this switch is Auto-Fading Text, which encourages the reader to read my site quicker and more efficiently (and makes the text nearly illegible if they do not).  Read on to learn more details about Auto-Fading Text and the other new features. Read the rest of this entry »

For Website 20, it was time to retire the egg that had served so well from Website 17 to Website 19.  Intentionally badly-animated, the egg was inspired by pandas’ notorious inability to breed successfully—which leads to my theory that God hates pandas.

Enjoy.

• Website 17-19 Easter Egg.

It always amazes me how many U.S. businesses wantonly break the law—often doing so without compunction and, worse, without consequences.  It further amazes me how, even when a crime is obvious, our government agencies often fail to stop it.

Here in my current home town of Herndon, VA, as in many other places around the country, illegal immigrants gather in large numbers on a particular street to await work every morning.  Do the local police, state authorities, or federal immigration agencies ever stop by to arrest these illegal immigrants and the people who illegally hire them?  No.

I discovered from Brian Krebs’s blog at the Washington Post that this pattern extends to the Internet, at least with respect to terrorism.  Also here in Herndon, our neighborhood domain registrar Network Solutions has illegally accepted money from Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations that U.S companies are prohibited from doing business with.  Endurance International, the parent company of my own web hosting provider (that I am soon to abandon for other reasons), also hosts a web site for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Do these companies care?  Apparently not.  Will the various U.S. government agencies with responsibility for enforcing our anti-terror laws fine these businesses?  Unlikely.  I just don’t get it!

Another picture I took a while ago and forgot to post—likely because I was laid up with a horrendous stomach bug for a week right after I took it.  While I was flying out to Albuquerque in January, this vending machine caught my eye in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.  Yes, you are not imagining things.  This is an iPod vending machine, which includes several varieties of iPods, digital cameras, and accessories.  If you ever wanted an iPod, but didn’t want to visit an actual retailer, here is your solution.

So, the commute this morning didn’t go exactly as planned.  Five minutes earlier, we would have passed through before the accident that had I-66 Eastbound shut down at Washington Blvd.  Five minutes later, we would have been far enough back to take the exit for Route 7 and head through Falls Church to get to the office on surface streets.  Instead, we sat…for an hour…without moving.  If you look at the second picture, you’ll notice that the car was in PARK when these were taken.  When we finally got up to the accident, it did look pretty brutal…so hopefully everybody was okay.

So a lot has been going on, but very little of it has made it to the web site as I have hardly had time to write about anything. I’ve been working to downsize my technology portfolio, since I had a glut of computers sitting around, so I’ve replaced a number of my old, secondary computers with a single Asus Eee PC 4G Surf. It’s a pretty spiffy little machine that’s small enough for use pretty much everywhere. I’m writing this entry on it right now. I’ll write a more thorough review of the machine sooner or later.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on some ideas for a major update/change to my web site. The 20th version of the site will likely be running on a different content management system (I’m looking at WordPress) and a more ‘blog-oriented’ format. I think a focus on smaller, punchier articles will be easier for me to keep up with—plus WordPress has a more flexible categorization system than Joomla, which will allow a more accurate and usable structure to the site. This is still a-ways away, though I am planning to start some prototyping soon. I’ll provide updates as the redesign gets closer, but I’m looking at a more minimalist design with better support for mobile browsers and lower requirements for desktop browsers (allowing viewing on small screens, like that on my new Eee PC, without horizontal scrolling). Read the rest of this entry »

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the shootings at Northern Illinois University in the midst of unspeakable tragedy.  But, every time I hear of one of these incidents, I am reminded of how flawed the idea of ‘gun control’ is.  The campus of Northern Illinois University, like Virginia Tech’s and many other campuses across the country, is a ‘gun-free zone’.  This simply means that law abiding gun owners leave their weapons at home (weapons that might have been used to cut short these massacres with return-fire) while the criminals, who care little for laws, continue to carry and use their weapons.  We see the same pattern in Washington, DC, where guns are essentially illegal so only the gang members and criminals carry while the law-abiding citizens go unarmed (and are 688% more likely to be murdered than citizens of neighboring Virginia [US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004]).

I am not a gun owner [yet ;-)], but this is another example of why gun ownership and—more importantly—gun possession by responsible, law-abiding citizens is not a problem.  On the contrary, it is a potential solution and deterrent to gun violence.  As the old saying goes, ‘an armed society is a polite society.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Just outside of Charlottesville, VA heading north on Route 29 there is a notorious stretch of road.  There are two lanes of traffic, lots of volume coming out of Charlottesville, a series of badly-timed traffic lights, and rolling hills that limit forward visibility.  Often, as I pass through that area, a leisurely 30-45 mph drive turns to a sudden stop and a few heart-wrenching seconds where you wonder if the drivers of the cars behind you have been as alert as you have been.

Today, as Melissa and I passed through the area on this dangerous stretch of road, it was a fairly standard string of events.  We were driving at about 35 or 40 mph in a long mass of cars, minding our own business, when one of the badly timed lights turned red somewhere up ahead and everybody in front of us came to a sudden, unexpected stop.  I, of course, applied the brakes on my Mazda Tribute SUV [strongly] and came to a stop at an appropriate distance behind the car ahead of me.  Immediately, I looked in the rear-view to make sure people behind us were stopping as well. Read the rest of this entry »

A curious thing happened on the way to extending MetroRail to Dulles: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA, ‘Metro’) unmitigated incompetence at running the existing system got noticed, and the Federal Transit Administration started asking why they should help fund an addition to a disintegrating system.  Now, as a direct result of Metro’s spectacular inability to manage itself, a twenty-year overdue addition to our regional transportation system probably won’t happen.  This, combined with the state government’s continuing redirection of Northern Virginia transportation money to Southern Virginia Rest Stop Renovations, has lined us up for a future of ever-worsening gridlock.

[Federal Transit Administration chief James S.] Simpson emphasized his concerns about Metro, likening the Dulles expansion to putting a two-room addition onto a house that is falling down. “First, you have to fix the house,” he said later at a news conference. “Metro’s operational issues have become really serious over the last several months,” he said. “I spent several hours with senior staff at Metro talking about their unfunded needs. They’re holding up some of their subway stations with jacks. They’re holding other subway stations up with two-by-fours and plywood. I could go on.”

Read the rest of this entry »

There are more big changes on this year’s list of the ugliest cars.  Two models featured on last year’s list (Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, Scion xA) have been discontinued, two have undergone major appearance changes or redesigns (Scion xB, Subaru Tribeca), and another (Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible) is available for 2008 but has already had its demise announced by Chrysler’s new management.  The Subaru Tribeca (formerly the ‘B9 Tribeca’) underwent a radical improvement (after only one year on the market), eliminating many of its worst visual characteristics and resulting in a stellar climb—from last year’s ugliest car to not even appearing on this year’s list. Read the rest of this entry »